# String comparison

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/string-comparison/50305>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 15, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/string-comparison/50305 "2005-12-15T00:45:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Boris\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boris\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Boris_G)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/string-comparison/50305/1 "2005-12-15T00:45:19Z")

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Hi,

I have a class containing a string as an instance variable and I have a  
local  
variable containing a string.

I compare these two strings with ‘==’ and with the .eql? method:

###################################

obj.text = “hello world”  
localtext = “hello world”

if obj.text == localtext  
then  
# do something  
end

###################################

The condition never became true in my program. Thus I added some debug  
output.  
This is the the debugging code:

if not obj.text == localtext  
then  
print “”#{obj.text}" is not equal “#{localtext}”\n"  
end

This is, what it gave me:

“hello world” is not equal “hello world”

It’s not worth trying the example above, since it’s not the actual code.  
The  
actual code in my project is much more complex, that’s why I used this  
example  
to discribe my problem.

Fact is that when the string comparison does not succeed I get an output  
like

“hello world” is not equal “hello world”

Now it’s your turn… What could cause this behaviour?

thanks and greets

Boris

P.S. I have cancelled two versions of this posting, since they contained  
some  
typos and syntax errors

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Boris\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boris\_G](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Boris_G)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 5:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/string-comparison/50305/2 "2005-12-15T05:07:11Z")

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Hi –

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005, Boris G. wrote:

> localtext = “hello world”  
> This is the the debugging code:  
> It’s not worth trying the example above, since it’s not the actual code. The  
> actual code in my project is much more complex, that’s why I used this  
> example  
> to discribe my problem.

Well… but showing some working code that doesn’t illustrate the  
problem isn’t going to help us help you 🙂

I wonder whether this .text method is return an object other than a  
plain String – perhaps an object with == redefined.

David

–  
David A. Black  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

“Ruby for Rails”, forthcoming from Manning Publications, April 2006!